Bill Smith's Photography

If you're looking for fancy title, you're out of luck my friend. Winter is a constant season. As I am writing this the CBC call in program Cross Country Check Up is playing in the background with the topic "Coping with winter, have we become weather wimps?"  I spent the first 12 years of my life in Montreal and cold winters were the norm. This past Monday night and into Tuesday it dropped to -40c with the windchill, I didn't go out out of common sense. I just know better, the cold doesn't last forever. I love winter just as much as Summer because the beauty in the landscapes. My only wish is we got more snow and a lot less freezing rain. Camera: Olympus OM-1md, Zuiko MC 50 f1.8 lens. Film: Kodak Tri-X400, Xtol 1+1.

Four days before Christmas, Central Canada got sucker punched with a weekend long ice storm, electrical grid suffered some serious damage in parts of Greater Toronto and other regions of Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. I was fortunate that my neighbourhood was only without power for 12 hours, other people were in the dark and cold for over a week. One side effect of this weather disaster is the beautiful images with the ice encrusted branches. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, I kept looking up, not so much for potential subject matter to document but to make sure a branch is not going to land on my head.  I cringe when I hear people complain about the snow, I'll take a snow storm over freezing rain every time. Camera: Olympus OM-1MD, Zuiko 75-150 Zoom lens, 50 f1.8 MC lens, Film: Kodak Tri-X400, Xtol 1+1, Location: My driveway in Oakville

All shot on the 2013 Winter Photography Outing with the Oakville Camera Club up in Belfountain Conservation Area and surrounding neighbourhood. I really love shooting with my Nikon FM2, especially in the winter. The Canadian Government used them up in the high arctic because it was the only camera that would function in temperatures as low as -40c, I don't think the replacement DSLRs would last anywhere near as long out there. Camera: Nikon FM2 and the 35 F2 Ais Lens mostly. Film: Fuji Pro 400 H.